Within days after the two saffron alliance partners had a bitter showdown in the Palghar Lok Sabha bypoll, BJP’s national president Amit Shah will meet Sena president Uddhav Thackeray here on Wednesday evening, in an apparent effort to mend fences with the long-aggrieved ally and renew the electoral ties between the two parties for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Confirming Wednesday’s meeting between Shah and Uddhav at the latter’s “Matoshri” residence at Bandra in north-west Mumbai, Sena’s spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said: “Shah sought an appointment for a meeting our party president. Uddhavji has agreed to meet him tomorrow evening…Traditionally speaking, visitors are always welcome at Matoshri”.

Asked as to what is the purpose of Shah’s meeting with Uddhav, Raut said: “Only the BJP president will be able to tell as to what is the purpose of the meeting. As far as we are concerned, we have no agenda for the meeting. Since it is Shah who has sought an appointment, he will have an agenda for the meeting”.

Incidentally, Uddhav is the first NDA ally that Shah would be meeting after the party failed to form a government in Karnataka, suffered a setback in Kairana and Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha by-polls and pulled off a victory in the Palghar Lok Sabha by-poll against Shiv Sena with a modest margin of 29,572 votes. After meeting with the Sena chief, Shah will head to Chandigarh on Thursday to meet Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal.

On his part, Raut reiterated that there was absolutely no change in the Sena’s stand that it would go it alone in all the future polls. “The Sena’s heart is that of a tiger. It does not waver easily. Uddhavji has already taken a decision. We have already made a beginning by contesting independent of the BJP in the Palghar by-poll. Irrespective of tomorrow’s meeting between the leaders of the two parties, I do not think there will be any change in the Sena’s stand," the Sena spokesperson said.

Aditya Thackeray, Sena’s youth wing president and son of Uddhav Thackeray, also chose not to attach much of an importance to Wednesday’s meeting between Shah and his father. “Today is the world environment day. I do not want to bring in political pollution by talking about tomorrow’s meeting,” Aditya said, when asked to comment on the impending Shah-Uddhav meeting.

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant downplayed the import of Wednesday’s meeting between Shah and the Sena President. “It looks like a belated realisation for the BJP (that it desperately needs the Shiv Sena as an ally to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls).

Wednesday’s meeting will be the second meeting Shah and Uddhav during the last one year. Shah had met Uddhav on June 18 last year and sought the Sena’s support for to the NDA nominee for the presidential poll. Interestingly enough, the BJP had at that time not yet announced the candidature of its nominee Ram Nath Kovind for the presidential poll.

Given that there is absolute lack of enthusiasm on the part of both the Sena leadership and the party cadres to ally with the BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it remains to be seen as to whether Shah will be able to smooth the Sena’s ruffled feathers and win back into its good books, at Wednesday’s meeting.

Speculation is rife in the state political circles that in his bid to placate the miffed Sena, Shah may offer a Cabinet berth in the expansion of the ministry that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will in all likelihood undertake in July, and the nomination of Sena’s man as candidate for the deputy chairman’s election in Rajya Sabha, which is likely to take place in July this year.

The Shiv Sena, which despite sharing power with the BJP in the state and at the Centre has been extremely critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for the past few years, has traversed too far so as to beat a retreat at this stage.

Through its continued attacks on the BJP and Modi, the Sena has tried to occupy the Opposition space in the state even while being in alliance with the Shah-led party. Despite provocations from the Opposition Congress and NCP, the Sena has not walked out the ruling saffron alliance government in the state and Modi-led government at the Centre. Available indications that the Sena will enjoy fruits of power till early next before it severe links with the BJP and contests the Lok Sabha polls on its own strength.

Uddhav, who had announced in January this year that his party would contest all the future polls on its own strength, had ticked off the BJP by roping in late BJP sitting MP Chintaman Wanga’s Shrinivas and fielding him as his party’s candidate in the Palghar by-poll.

With no let up in the palpably acute strains in the relations between the two saffron parties, Shah will have a tough task on hand to bring back the relationship between the two parties onto the even keel.

All eyes on Shah-Uddhav meet today